TREE-WORSHIP 43 



habited the tree inhabited also the Maypole 

 taken from the tree ; and the dance round the 

 Maypole was a religious ceremony. The gar- 

 lands that children still carry from house to 

 house were believed in the past to secure a 

 visit from the spirit, and consequent well-being. 

 The May-Queen and Jack-in-the-Green were, 

 in origin, human forms of the tree-spirit. The 

 belief that the Maypole ensures fertility, both 

 in women and cattle, is not yet extinct even in 

 Europe; and in some parts of Germany, on 

 May-Day, the peasants set up May-trees at the 

 doors of stable and cow-byre, a tree for each 

 horse and cow, to ensure fertility, and that the 

 cows will give plenty of milk. Whitsuntide 

 customs and those of the Eve of St. John and 

 of harvest-time have the same kind of signifi- 

 cance. 



Most of us, nowadays, live in a world of 

 buildings. If there be trees near us they 

 are few and far between ; and for the most 

 part they are unhealthy. Their spirits, if they 

 had any, could not but be unhappy. Our far- 

 off ancestors lived in a world of trees. Some 

 of us, to-day, count ourselves happy because, 

 even though at some inconvenience, we live ^_^.^x**»- 



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